Cognitive behavioural therapy

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems through identifying the relationship between thoughts, actions and feelings.

There are helpful and unhelpful ways of reacting to most situations, depending on how you think about it. For example, when we feel low, our thoughts can be negative and unhelpful, we may stop doing things we used to enjoy and that in turn can make us feel worse. CBT breaks down problems into smaller, more manageable parts and through trying out different ways of responding, you can change how you feel.

The therapy focuses on difficulties in the “here and now” and you may be asked to keep a diary of your thoughts and feelings. By experimenting with different ways of responding to situations, you can discover actions to help improve your mood. CBT is interactive and in collaboration with the therapist, you will decide on the focus for each session and on homework to practise between the sessions. CBT aims to get you to a point where you can use your new skills to work out your own ways of tackling your problems. It has been shown to help with many types of problems including depression, anxiety, panic and phobias.